The place of tattoos in the cultural milieu of China and Japan today parallels their standing in society in the west in many ways; associations with gangs, outlaws and degenerate subcultures are commonly held perceptions. Learn More

MODERN PRIMITIVES: An anthropological inquiry into a contemporary social enigma - the increasingly popular revival of ancient human decoration practices such as symbolic/deeply personal tattooing, multiple piercings, and ritual scarification. Learn More

Once upon a time, before the advent of the indie rocker and the alternative chick, before primitivism became a style trend and tattoo parlors set up shop on the good avenues, tattoos were the secret language of a restricted world, a world of criminals. Learn More

Danzig Baldaev's father was an academic, an ethnologist who found himself imprisoned under Soviet rule as an enemy of the people. In fact much of Baldaev's family moved through the Soviet prison system, while he became a guard. Learn More